Safety Net, Spring 2012 - Coalition For The Homeless

Safety Net
Spring 2012
The newsletter of the Coalition for the Homeless
The Revolving Door Into Shelter
Percentage of Eligible
Families Who Have Had
Prior Shelter Stays
37%
22% 24%
1999
2000
29%
2001
25% 27% 24%26%
2002
2003
2004
39%
2006
2007
45%
2008
49%
40% 40%
2009 2010
2005
Homeless Families
Cut Off From Federal
Housing Resources
2011
52%
2012
Remembering Larry
By Tim Campbell,
Director of Programs
L
arry had been coming to the Coalition for over ten years before
he passed away in December. A
short, stocky man, built a bit like
a fire hydrant with the voice of a
bullhorn, he was a colorful character to say the least.
Over the last decade we helped
Larry get the disability benefits he
needed and deserved. We helped
get him into the shelter he had the
right to – only to lose the shelter.
We helped him get into housing – only to lose the housing. In
fact, we did all these things many
times. See, in addition to severe
mental health and medical issues,
Larry had an unrelenting addiction
to alcohol, and needless to say,
things could get messy with Larry.
This was a man who spent
years and years off and on the
streets, who had been kicked out
of countless drop-in centers, and
someone who, undoubtedly, was
in incredible emotional pain.
Safety Net
is published by
COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS
129 Fulton Street
New York, NY 10038
Telephone: 212-776-2002
www.coalitionforthehomeless.org
MARY E. BROSNAHAN
Executive Director
Editor
SARAH MURPHY
Design
CLARE MANIAS
Photography
Page 3: UFT(top)
Page 7:
PATRICK MCMULLAN
2
One of the most vivid memories I have of Larry was one of the
most heartbreaking images I’ve
ever witnessed. It’s the vision of
this hard man, broken down after
years of homelessness, coming
into our office to tell us a story of
having passed out one night on
the subway, only to wake up to
find a group of kids had set him
on fire. Despite the incredibly
inhumane cruelty of being set on
instead of a shelter bed, or a back
alley, or a seat on the train. But the
fact is there are far too many people
and far too many places that gave
up on Larry a long time ago.
But that never happened at
the Coalition. It means everything
to me that I work in a place that
never gave up on Larry. And for
that I thank our Grand Central
Food Program for continuing to
feed him while he lived on the
I’m writing about Larry today because, aside from missing him and
believing that he should be remembered, we also believe that he
deserved better than the life he got. Above all else, he deserved a home...
fire in his sleep simply because he
was homeless, Larry sadly blamed
himself for being in that position.
He didn’t seem to share our disgust that someone could disconnect so entirely from the fact that
he was a human being.
But he wasn’t just a human
being. Larry was a good and decent man who could be insightful,
honest, gentle and kind. Make no
mistake, when Larry was sober
he was one of the most pleasant
people you’d want to talk to, and
like so many of our street homeless clients, he was a survivor in
every sense of the word. There
were often times that he fought
valiantly for his independence and
his sobriety only to ultimately lose
the struggle of maintaining them.
I’m writing about Larry today
because, aside from missing him
and believing that he should be remembered, we also believe that he
deserved better than the life he got.
Above all else, he deserved a home
streets; our security, front desk
and maintenance staff for being
patient and kind to him on his not
so good days; our Crisis staff for
being there for him whenever he
asked them to be; and especially
our CAP staff who served him so
faithfully, and were still at it, working on housing for him right up to
the end of his life.
In spite of an intensely committed and capable staff, the
reality is that we do not always get
the results that we hope for, or
more importantly, the results that
the people we serve would hope
for themselves. However, as Larry
could attest to, we will not stop
caring; we will not stop serving;
and we will not give up. It happens in big and small ways every
day in each and every one of our
programs. It is what the Coalition
is all about and we keep going
because, as we all know, there are
far too many people like Larry still
out there who deserve better.
New Yorkers Open Their Hearts This Holiday Season
By Marisa Butler
T
his past December, thousands
of New Yorkers came together
to make the holiday season a
little brighter for homeless children across the city. Deliveries of
hundreds of action figures, dolls,
stuffed animals, games and more
came in each day provided by
drives from over 35 businesses and
community organizations. In total,
we collected over 1,500 toys.
A most inspired gift came
from an eight year old girl named
Francesca. After saving her own
money and getting her friends and
family to do the same, she was able
to purchase an entire truck-full of
toys – over $800 worth!
The drive culminated in an
exciting holiday carnival held at the
UFT headquarters. Nearly 200 children enjoyed games, food, dancing
to tunes played by a DJ, face painting, gift bags, toys and a special
visit from Santa’s favorite helper,
Mr. G from Pix 11! Then after the
party, our vans distributed the
remaining toys to family shelters
throughout the boroughs.
We’d like to extend a special
thanks to companies and groups
that hosted drives, special events,
wrapped gifts or volunteered at our
carnival, including the UFT, AIG,
Macy’s, New York Life, Lightyear
Capital, X-mental, Rainbow Media
Holding, Forbes, The New York
Economic Development Corporation and Golden Strings of Fate.
Dear Santa,
g ifts, prizes,
r
fo
u
o
y
k
n
a
Th
u
e painting yo
c
fa
d
n
a
d
o
fo
. Thank yo u
e
m
n
e
iv
g
e
v
guys ha
r
o li days supe
h
y
m
g
in
k
a
for m
l for me and
ia
c
e
sp
a
tr
x
e
and
my family.
Elio
We’d also like to thank all of
those who hosted fundraisers
on behalf of the Coalition,
especially IR Magazine and
Treasure&Bond.
Eight-year-old Francesca delivering her toys.
3
Mayor Bloomberg’s Revolving Door of Homelessness
L
ast night, more than 43,000
homeless men, women and chil
dren went to sleep in New York
City municipal shelters, including
an all-time record 17,000 children. For many of them, it wasn’t
their first trip through the shelter
system. Almost four years out of
the 2008 economic collapse, there
are still lingering economic factors
contributing to record homelessness, like the worsening housing
affordability crunch. But the precipitous rise in New York City homelessness began even before the
economic crisis and continues to
rise more severely now due to the
disastrous policy decisions made by
the Bloomberg administration.
Up until 2005 and under Mayors Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani, the
City’s main resource for combating homelessness was to prioritize
homeless individuals and families
for federal housing programs, such
as public housing and Section 8
rental vouchers. For decades, these
resources had been a proven, effective way to move families out
of shelter and keep them stably
housed. The federal housing programs were also cheaper for New
York taxpayers, who pay most of
the bill for the $36,000 annual cost
to shelter a homeless family.
However, in 2005, Mayor
Bloomberg broke from this longstanding and successful policy and
cut off homeless families from
receiving these valuable resources.
Instead, homeless households were
given City-funded short-term rental
subsidies, the latest of which was
called “Advantage.” These time-limited subsidies have proven wasteful
and ineffective, with more than one
of every three formerly-homeless
families returning to seek shelter
after their subsidies ended.
4
In continuing along the trajectory of bad to worse, the Bloomberg
administration decided to terminate the Advantage program in
March 2011, and refused to replace
it with the successful federal programs. Now, for the first time since
modern homelessness began, there
is no housing assistance in place to
help homeless families move from
shelter to permanent housing. And
compounding the problem, the
City also tried to cut off Advantage
subsidies for thousands of families
who had already left shelter for
case, but in the meantime, 8,000
formerly-homeless families are
now at risk of flooding the already
bursting shelter system.
Advantage Recidivism
Although the Advantage program
has ended, its failures continue
to cause immeasurable harm to
children and families, and to feed
record homelessness. New data
have cast a light onto the increasing
problem of Advantage families returning to shelter. Four years after
the start of the Advantage program,
...the precipitous rise in New York City homelessness began even before
the economic crisis and continues to rise more severely now due to the
disastrous policy decisions made by the Bloomberg administration.
apartments. Fortunately, due to
a legal challenge by the Legal Aid
Society, the City was required to
continue making rental payments
for existing Advantage tenants until
February 2012, when a protective
court order was lifted. The plaintiffs are currently appealing the
more than 3,100 Advantage families have returned to shelter at a
cost of at least $106 million to taxpayers. These 3,100 families make
up over 27 percent of all families
no longer receiving Advantage
rental assistance.
In comparison to the shelter
Rate of Return to Shelter for Time-Limited and Non-Limited Housing Subsidies
Percentage of Families Returning to Shelter
By Giselle Routhier
50%
44.1%
40%
27.4%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Advantage*
(applications
to shelter)
Advantage*
(already returned
to shelter)
4.5%
3.6%
All Subsidized
Housing**
Section 8
Voucher**
2.1%
NYCHA Pu blic
Housing**
*Advantage data refers to share of all Advantage families without rental assistance as of 11/1/2011
**Refers to families who exited shelter from1994 to 2001
Source: NYC Department of Homeless Services, and Vera Institute,
"Understanding Family Homelessness" (2005)
return rates associated with permanent housing resources, these
numbers are astronomical. A 2005
study of homeless families in New
York found that only 3.6 percent of
families who received a Section 8
voucher returned to shelter and only
2.1 percent of families who moved
into public housing returned. All in
all, the Advantage shelter return rate
is more than six times that of longterm subsidized housing.
The reason behind this is simple math. According to City data,
the average rent for an Advantage
after one or two years, the City
only kept that promise for a small
portion of those disabled tenants.
Of the 8,000 remaining Advantage
tenants today, roughly 20 percent
are on fixed incomes.
Recidivism Contributing
to Record Homelessness
The sharp rise in Advantage families returning to shelters has been a
major contributing factor to current
record homelessness. Before homeless households were cut off from
federal housing assistance in 2005,
The sharp rise in Advantage families returning to shelters has been a major
contributing factor to current record homelessness.
apartment was $1,065. Working
families that received Advantage
made an average of $9.50 an hour
and worked 32 hours per week.
This comes to roughly $1,200 a
month in income—nowhere near
enough to cover the full rent after
the subsidy ended.
Furthermore, a significant
portion of Advantage households
receive disability benefits as their
only source of income. Often, this
amounts to little more than $700
a month. While these households
were originally scheduled to transition to Section 8 rental vouchers
around 25 percent of all families
entering shelter had experienced
homelessness at least once before.
As of late 2011, the rate had more
than doubled to 52 percent. In
other words, today more than half
of all families entering shelter have
been homeless before!
The consequences of this are
apparent in the marked increase in
the family shelter population since
2005, even during years when the
economy was growing and unemployment was low. The number of
families entering shelter reached
new record levels almost every year
Percentage of Eligible Families Who Have Had Prior Shelter Stays
70%
60%
Homeless families
cut off from federal
housing resources
50%
40%
30%
22% 24%
29%
37% 39%
45%
49% 52%
40% 40%
25% 27% 24% 26%
20%
10%
0%
ov)
999 000 001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011
FY 1 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 FY 2 hro ugh N
T
12 (
Source: New York City Department of Homeless Services
YF 2 0
since then. Had the shelter return
rate remained constant at 25 percent, family shelter entrants would
have increased only in 2009 and
2010, consistent with the prevailing
economic climate.
Moreover, the 2005 shift to providing homeless families with shortterm rental subsidies has cost New
York taxpayers hundreds of millions
in avoidable shelter costs. If from
2005 to 2012 the shelter return rate
had remained at 25 percent of all
families entering the shelter system,
the City would have saved $448
million dollars over the course of six
years, or an average of $74.7 million
each year. And most important
of all, thousands of children and
families would have been spared the
hardships of homelessness.
Moving Forward
The sad result, if the Bloomberg
administration doesn’t change
course immediately, will be ever
more homeless families languishing in shelters for longer periods of
time with no way out. Even more
tragically, thousands of families will
continue to experience multiple episodes of homelessness, with thousands of children bearing the worst
consequences of this instability.
The City can and should begin
to address this crisis by 1) immediately targeting one in three federal
housing resources to homeless
families; and 2) creating a new and
improved local rental assistance
program modeled on the proven
Section 8 voucher program.
The effects of Mayor Bloomberg’s post-2005 homeless policy
decisions have been catastrophic.
The number of families experiencing multiple episodes of homelessness has skyrocketed and has
been a main factor fueling record
homelessness. This has resulted in
millions of wasted taxpayer dollars
and immeasurable suffering for
tens of thousands of children.
Read our full Briefing Paper at
www.coalitionforthehomeless.org
5
Shelter Residents Take Charge Through the Coalition’s Client Advocacy Group
By Sarah Murphy
E
very other Tuesday roughly
30 men and women from
New York’s single adult
shelters gather at the Coalition to participate in our Client
Advocacy Group (CAG). Formed
nearly two decades ago to help
organize community boards
of people living in homeless
shelters, CAG has grown into a
multi-faceted program based on
advocacy, education, empowerment and socialization.
Each CAG meeting is facilitated by our Shelter Specialist
and former CAG member, David
Obele. He leads the group in a
discussion about topics relevant
to the members’ needs, such as
DHS policies and
procedures, voting
rights, and more
personal concerns,
like ways to cope
with the embarrassment and guilt
that often come
with being homeless. Having known
what it is like to live
in a shelter himself,
David is able to get
members to open
up and focus on how they can
make their lives better.
The group also goes over
issues that have arisen in the
shelters. David calls CAG his
“eyes and ears.” As the designated
shelter monitor, the Coalition is
responsible for making sure 68
shelters are up to code, and as David put it, “We can’t be everywhere
at one time, so we depend on
6
CAG not only to tell us how things
are going, but to go back to the
shelters and help us negotiate with
shelter staff and get things fixed.”
We hear a host of concerns.
Some of the members have been
wrongly threatened with eviction
from the shelter. Others tell us
that they have been placed in a
shelter inappropriately, or forced
to enter a drug treatment program when they are in fact sober.
Still more come with complaints
about shelter cleanliness, extreme
settled, they spend the remainder
of the meeting eating dinner and
socializing. “We want to let our
CAG members know that they
aren’t alone,” David acknowledges.
“There is so much isolation in
being homeless. This time allows
people to realize they aren’t the
only ones who have had hardships.
That there are others like me.”
Outside of the meetings, CAG
plays a central role in the Coalition’s advocacy efforts. In addition
to heading shelter community
Formed nearly two decades ago to help organize community boards of people
living in homeless shelters, CAG has grown into a multi-faceted program based
on advocacy, education, empowerment and socialization.
temperatures, crime and poor staff
treatment. David coaches them on
ways to deal with these problems,
but more importantly, the roundtable style of the session gives
other CAG members the chance
to share how they have dealt with
similar situations in their shelters,
helping to give each member a
valuable sense of purpose.
After the business has been
board meetings and informing other residents about their rights, they
join the Coalition at press conferences, rallies and marches – even
going up to Albany in the middle of
the winter to challenge government
cuts. Through all of this, friendships are made, and many of our
members – for the first time, in a
long time – realize that they matter.
They can make a difference.
ARTWALK NY Raises Over $880,000
By Maria Fregoso
I
n November, nearly 900 New
Yorkers gathered at Skylight
Soho for the Coalition’s 17th
annual ARTWALK NY. Co-chaired
by Alec Baldwin, Richard Gere and
Carey Lowell, with honorary chair,
Coco Rocha, the live and silent art
auction was our most successful
ever, raising over $880,000.
Jenny Holzer, Leonard Rosenfeld,
Wade Guyton and Invader, while
the silent auction featured works
by over 100 artists, including Roxy
Paine, Mary Heilmann, Kenny
Scharf, Hernan Bas, Olaf Breuning and Yoko Ono.
The evening was topped off by
DJ Donna D’Cruz and DJ ADD;
restaurant tasting stations from
Macao, Michael’s and Edi & the
We are truly grateful to the many artists, committee members,
and sponsors that helped make the 17th annual ARTWALK NY possible.
ARTWALK NY Sponsors
Sponsors
Draftfcb
Gail and Al Engelberg
Advocates
Barclays Capital
ELLE
FENDI
Nardello & Co.
Patrons
Candice Bergen and Marshall Rose
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
Victor Ozeri and the Bensonhurst
Foundation
Associates
Deerfield Management
Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C.
Alice Kramer
Sony Corporation of America
Supporters
André Balasz
Janet Hoffman
Richard H. Lewis and Joan M. Sapinsley
Carl D. Lobell
Mary Brosnahan, Alec Baldwin, Coco Rocha, Carey Lowell, and Richard Gere in front of
Shepard Fairey’s The Future is Unwritten
The event featured Shepard
Fairey, who introduced the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s
inaugural “Artist as Activist” print
project to commemorate Rauschenberg’s dedication to important
social issues and the mission of the
Coalition for the Homeless. As part
of this special project, Fairey created an original print, The Future is
Unwritten, which was sold on artnet
to benefit the Coalition.
Live auction bidders vied to
win works by Andy Warhol, Kim
McCarty, Ed Ruscha, Thomas
Hirschhorn, Shepard Fairey,
Wolf; and complimentary beverages by Star Vodka, Beck’s, Sud de
France and the Odeon.
Thanks to the enthusiasm and
generosity of this year’s ARTWALK patrons, almost one million
dollars will go towards ensuring
that the Coalition can continue
offering a safety net to more than
3,500 homeless men, women and
children every day.
We are truly grateful to the
many artists, committee members,
and sponsors that helped make
the 17th annual ARTWALK NY
possible.
Friends
Berlin Rosen Ltd.
Burke & Company
Lucy Bondi Grollman
Agnes Gund
Stephen Hays and Valerie Hughes
Intercity Agency, Inc.
Deena and Erik Katz
Brooke G. Neidich
Michael and Elin Nierenberg
Sanky Communications, Inc.
Jonathan and Stacey Satovsky
Mara and Baron Silverstein
Elizabeth Swig
Bettye H. Turrito
7
Camp Homeward Bound is around the corner!
We need NEW girls and boys swimsuits in sizes 7-16.
You can send them to Bev McEntarfer at 129 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038.
For more information, you can email her at [email protected].